Fort Wayne gamblers, 1865-1900

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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

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FORT WAYNE GAMBLERS
1865 - 1900

Prepared by the Staff of the

Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County

1954

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FOREWORD

Since earliest times, gambling has exerted an almost
universal appeal. In early cultures, games of chance en-
joyed ceremonial importance; successful participants were
often credited with supernatural powers. More often, how-
ever, gambling has been regarded as a social evil, and re-
pressive action has been taken against it.

In Fort Wayne, the rapid urban growth which followed
the Civil War fostered widespreadorganized gambling. The
following brief sunamary of late nineteenth-century gambling
activities in Fort Wayne has been compiled from newspaper
accounts and general works of the period. The Boards and
the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen
County present this publication in the hope that it will enter-
tain and inform the many historically nninded citizens of the
are-

JTJason long

Following the Civil War, while speculation in rail-
roads, oil fields, banks, and life insurance was widespread
throughout the nation. Fort Wayne was invaded by a horde
of professional gamblers, thieves, and confidence men. At-
tracted by the railroads which converged here, they per-
fected so many schemes for fleecing the unwary traveler
that the railroads later felt constrained to employ private
detectives in order to protect the passengers. Citizens of
Fort Wayne were victimized by a band of thieves and gam-
blers organized under the leadership of the notorious Edward
Ryan, Public indignation reached the breaking point in 1867
when a stranger was robbed at a local railroad station; an
angry mob burned Ryan's saloon to the ground and forced
his hasty departure from town. The desire for reform was
short-lived, however, and the gamblers met with little op-
position when they resumed their games.

Inhis autobiography, MASON LONG, THE CONVERT-
ED GAMBLER, the author stated that he was only an average
ambitious youth until he was introduced to gambling in the
army. "Gaming," he said, "afforded a relief to the monot-
ony of camp life and produced excitement which withdrew
the attention of the boys from the perils they were undergo-
ing, " Through diligent practice. Long became the regimen-
tal champion at chuck-a-luck, and by the end of the war he
had accumulated enough money to buy a grocery store in
Fort Wayne, Here he was introduced to whisky, "as medi-
cine only," and resumed his gambling activities under the
aegis of John Sterling, a proprietor of the infamous Lodge
Saloon.

Long's formative years as a professional gambler
were spent in the company of experts from New York, Chi-
cago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Cleveland, who had been at-
tracted to the wide-open games that could always be found
in downtown Fort Wayne in those days. Long declared, how-
ever, that after Ryan's precipitate flight "the confidence
men deserted Fort Wayne, and this city began to lose its
prominence as a gaming center. These thieves had lost a
large part of their booty to the professional sports, and
when they departed, the gamblers found themselves short

1

of victims. The thieves robbed the greenhorns and in turn
lost their 'swag' at the faro bank or the poker table, taking
to the road as soon as they were 'broke' for the purpose of
replenishing their exchequers. Those were indeed lively-
times in Indiana. "

Nevertheless, Long apparently found Fort Wayne prof-
itable enough for him to devote almost full tinne to its ex-
ploitation. Although he was sonnetimes "busted" hundreds
of miles away from Columbia Street in his pursuit of race
horses and other gambling pleasures, he always returned
here for a fresh start in his chosen profession.

Keno, which Long thought fascinating (perhaps because
he could never win at it), was similar to bingo; the stakes,
however, were invariably high. Long declared that the
game was most often played by amateurs, as professional
gamblers realized the inevitability of losing to the house.
Faro, on the other hand, was an elaborate banking game
which appealed to amateurs andprofessionals alike. Played
on a layout which was a tableau of one connplete suit painted
on a green cloth or tabletop, it consisted primarily of bets
placed with the banker on the order or frequency with which
certain cards would appear in a silver dealing box. Play-
ers were offered any of twenty-one different ways to bet on
each new card that appeared. The FORT WAYNE GA-
ZETTE called it "the most absorbing game carried on in
Fort Wayne. "

By the fall of 1873, Long was operating a sumptuous
saloon and gambling house at 74 Calhoun Street. Outfitted
with huge mirrors, Brussels carpet, and ponderous black
walnut furniture, his rooms over the saloon were doing such
a brisk business that he was obliged to operate two games
simultaneously. During the Northern Indiana Fair of 1874,
Long was again forced to expand in order to accommodate
his eager patrons; three faro tables and one of rouge et noir
barely managed to satisfy all the gentlemen who clamored
to place bets. The sanne delightful problem faced Long at
the Soldiers Reunion which was also held here in 1874.

Mason Long was not the only gambler in Fort Wayne
during this period. A flourishing keno game was located

..a scimpluous 5dloon

over The Office, a saloon on Berry Street. Nearby was an
establishment which ope rated a full-time faro game for many
years; that particular den had become, in the words of the
GAZETTE, "one of the institutions of Fort Wayne. " In ad-
dition, transient gamblers often rented rooms in the down-
town area for short periods and parlayed small stakes into
minor fortunes within a few days, only to lose them again
later in other places.

Editorial indignation, of course, was not lacking con-
cerning this serious civic problem. The FORT WAYNE
NEWS used its columns both as a weapon against gamblers
and as a goad for Chief of Police "Mike" Singleton. Chief
Singleton, characterized by Long as bold and clever, was
hampered as a guardian of law and order by weak city or-
dinances and the general apathy of most citizens. He led
raids against known gambling houses whenever he was rea-
sonably certain of obtaining a conviction. But to convict
was almost impossible because of the difficulty of proving
law violation after gambling devices had been secreted in
locked roonns and in clever hiding places. Gamblers who
were arrested and taken to jail raised the nominal bond re-
quired, jumped bail, and left town for a short time until it
was again safe to return. Long stated that his rooms were
raided about three times in an average year and that he had
paid the city treasury approximately three thousand dollars
in bail over a period of ten years.

Long elaborated on this theme, calling to mind for
the nnodern reader the slapstick connedy of early movies:

"I have known the police to work for weeks devising
some plan for bagging a nest of sports. They usually chose
a time when the gamblers were supposed to be flush in order
that the city treasury might receive a 'benefit. ' They often
scaled buildings, climbed ladders, let themselves downfrom
the roofs through skylights, disguised themselves in citi-
zens' clothes, and, in fact, resorted to all manner of strat-
agems in order to capture the gentlemen who 'buck the
tiger. '"

In 1875 the FORT WAYNE SENTINEL championed
Chief Singleton and advocated a liberal use of the grand jury

io capture tbe genHemec.

to eliminate the various gambling rooms from the city.
"There are now, "the newspaper stated, "according to com-
mon report, a larger number of gaming rooms in operation
in this city than ever before, except during the war. There
are more well-dressed loafers hanging around the corners
with no visible means of support than at any time for years
past. It is stated on good authority that in the heart of the
city, within one block of the Aveline House, there are from
three to five gambling hells in constant operation, both day
and night. Their locations may be plainly discovered from
the mobs of loafers which hang around them. "

Long has given a hint as to one important reason for
civic inaction:

"One of my sporting enterprises in Fort Wayne was a
private 'clubroom' for gentlemen. This place was frequented
by some of the leading businessmen and wealthiest citizens
of Fort Wayne who liked to play among thenaselves, but did
not desire to come in contact with regular sporting men.
They were bankers, capitalists, merchants, city and county
officials, and other men of that class. "

Eventually, Long's luck changed. What the newspa-
pers facetiously called "Mace Long's Bazaar" and "Mace
Long's Confectionery" in time becannie the rendezvous for
many undesirable characters in town; the "bankers and other
men of that class" presumably moved on to another gann-
bler's tables. In their stead were now "blear-eyed bum-
mers, whisky bloats , and deadbeats. " After squandering
his money on foolish trinkets and at race tracks. Long be-
gan to drink more heavily than ever before. The "medicinal
purposes" of whisky were long since forgotten and had given
way to prolonged drinking bouts and attacks of deliriumtre-
mens. Long later "took the pledge" at a spectacular tem-
perance rally held in the city in 1877. Shortly afterward he
abandoned his cards and tables, joined a church, and began
his famous series of lectures on the evils of drinkand gam-
bling. In this worthy enterprise he was sponsored by the
Blue Ribbon Association, a Midwestern temperance group
that had grown out of the tempestuous Moody-Sankey re-
vival meetings in Chicago. Although the gamblers and

saloonkeepers of the city sourly asserted that "Mace" was
merely playing a confidence game and that in time he would
disappear with sonne trusting do-gooder's money, they were
mistaken. Long became a sincere reformer thereafter,
testifying on the platform throughout the Midwest. He was
also engaged in writing and selling his two moralistic books,
SAVE THE GIRLS, which dealt with the problem of "fallen
women," and THE CONVERTED GAMBLER.

Although widespread gambling in Fort Wayne dimin-
ished after the conversion of Long, professional gamblers
still did a flourishing business in a few upstairs rooms on
Calhoun and Berry streets. Several newspapers took it up-
on themselves to describe to their readers the pitfalls of the
nnore popular games of chance; poker, faro, and keno were
painted in the blackest hues by reporters who had obviously
indulged and lost painfully in those pastimes.

The GAZETTE of February 13, 1881, contained per-
haps the most elaborate analysis of the problenn; charges
were also made that a number of poker rooms, patronized
by prominent officials, church members, and businessmen,
were running day and night within the city. Dating from this
period, Fort Wayne newspapers printed more and more ar-
ticles which dealt with the gambling problems of other cities.
Reprints of humorous "con game" stories were followed by
the tragedy of a youth's suicide outside an Indianapolis faro
room, or the heart-rending portrayal of a gambler's de-
serted and starving wife and children.

For all the sound and fury that local violations of law
evoked on the pages of our newspapers, there seems to have
been an inadequate understanding of what gambling was.
One outstanding illustration of the difficulty is seen in the
GAZETTE'S article entitled "A Lucky Pair," dated April
25, 1882. In it Mr. Souser and Mr. Whitney were congrat-
ulated for winning $15,000 apiece in the famous Louisiana
Lottery. Mrs. Souser, in an interview with a GAZETTE
reporter, revealed that her husband had "speculated in lot-
tery tickets for some three years." It is certain that if
Souser had been apprehended at a downtown faro table, his
gambling activities would have been condemned by the paper.

But the statement concerning his participation in lotteries
was printed without comment. Thus it was that the lottery
and the general principles underlying all gambling were un-
intentionally given favorable notice in the columns of a no-
toriously anti-gannbling newspaper. As a side light to the
affair, the SENTINEL casually mentioned in August of that
year that Whitney was said to have lost most of his $15, 000
at J. W. Hall's faro tables.

The practice of infrequent police raids did not suc-
cessfully curb gambling. Most gamblers, like Dennis Mc-
Feeley and J. W. Hall, still looked upon bail as a kind of
license fee, which they cheerfully paid for the privilege of
operating in the city. Respectable citizens had little to fear
if they were apprehended in gambling rooms. When Mc-
Feeley's establishment was raided on August 9, 1882, twenty
well-known gentlemen were arrested and fined. A SENTI-
NEL reporter was at the scene, but only threats, and no
names, appeared in the paper.

On September 27, 1887, a warning was issued from
police headquarters that every known gambling room would
be watched and promptly raided if the slightest suspicion
existed concerning illegal activities. The numerous gam-
blers throughout the city were astonished to hear that the
laws were at last to be enforced. All up and down Calhoun
Street--at McFeeley's, at Oliver's, at Meader's--bartend-
ers belowstairs turned away the regular habitues with the
comment, "Game's closed!" The poker room over the
Crystal Billiard Hall was silent, and countless "clubrooms"
all over the city were shuttered and tenantless. An old re-
formed gambler, unidentified but sounding like Mason Long,
was quoted by the GAZETTE as saying: "I hope the police
authorities will continue in their good work. "

Although the old gannes were quick to disappear under
this pressure, the old gamblers did not respond in a similar
fashion. They soon adopted new devices and learned the
intricacies of new games. Their patrons, after the first
flurry of fright had passed, returned to lose again in new
locations. One of the first games to gain a foothold in the
recently reformed city was a so-called "policy game. "

,iiURCci aui^-Wjc ^equ\a^ Rtal^fWs

Laborers from all over Fort Wayne were soon betting on
numbers drawn in a lottery at Covington, Kentucky. The
existing laws were easily circumvented by the practice of
accepting bets and paying winnings at crowded public places;
a direct wire from Covington to a room at 30 West Main
Street relayed the results of each day's drawing. At about
this time slot machines made their first appearance in the
city; here as elsewhere, they proved to be immiensely pop-
ular.

The state legislature granted Fort Wayne a new city
charter in 1894, and the city immediately received the ben-
efits of a committee on public safety. Such boards or com-
mittees had been designed for the specific purpose of elim-
inating crime, and it was not long before gamblers felt the
effectiveness of the new weapon. The Boardof Public Safety
announced in the columns of the GAZETTE that the old prac-
tice of infrequent raids and subsequent fines was to be aban-
doned. In the future a warning would be given, after which
the full weight of the law would descend upon all violators.
However, the effectiveness of the Board depended upon the
sincerity and vigor of each political administration. The
election of C. B. Oakley as mayor on an independent reform
platform that same year enabled the Board to work success-
fully; most gambling activities were discouraged for the
time being.

By 1897 newspapers were distressed by the laxity that
had again overtaken City Hall. "Gambling is very generally
carried on, as well as other evils," said the GAZETTE of
January 3. The FORT WAYNE JOURNAL of November 17,
1898, condoned the use of gambling in promoting carnivals
and street fairs but heartily condemned the faro games,
poker players, and slot machines which had followed the
carnivals into town and had remained when the festivities
were over. This paper, too, did not seem to realize that
it was exhibiting a puzzling inconsistency on this important
question. In spite of the sincere and well-intentioned efforts
of the authorities and reformers, gambling has continued to
be an ever-present social problem in the twentieth century.

10

HECKMAN

BINDERY INC,

MAR 95

W-T„.P...N^ MANCHESTER,